Arizona weekly journal-miner., 1887-07-20
couMTY PAYMENTS TO TeRRlTo'
 RIAL JUDGES.

The example set by Apache, Cochise
 and other counties in the matter of vot-
 ing an annua! appropriation of $500
 each to pay the district judges who pre-
 side over their courts. IS one which
 should be followed by every county in
 the territory. Section 1863 of the Re
 vised Statutes of the United States pre-
 scribing the duties of the territorial
 judges, reads as follows "Every terri
 tory shall be divided into three districts,
 and a district court shall be held Tn each
 district of the territory by one Of the
 justices of the supreme court, al such
 time and place as may be prescribed by
 law, and each judge, after assignment,
 shall reside in the district to which he IS
 assigned" Aside from this there IS no
 provision of law requiring or compel
 ing the district judges of the territory to
 discharge the burdensome duties which
 have been thrust on them in the matter
 of performing the functions of county
 judges Tn each of the county subdivls-
 ions of their respective districts. Rec
 ognizing this fact, and unwilling to force
 the judges to assume responsibilities and
 obligations of the most sacred charac-
 ter without compensation, the legisla- lures of Arizona have always made ap-
 propriations of such sums as in their
 wisdom they deemed commensurate
 with the extra labor involved in the hold ing of such terms of court in the differ ent counties of the territory as partook of the character of local rather than
 United States tribunals. Justice and equity alike demanded that this addi- uonal compensation should be gwen in recompense for services not contemplated or required to be performed by the judges Coincidlng in these views, the las, session of the legislative assembly continued the practice of voting addi- tional compensation to assist the judges in defraying the increased expenses which had become attached to their offices, merely through their disposition to promote the public welfare by accel- erating the administration of justice. by making an appropriation of $I, 200 per year to each judge, which clause of the appropriation bill was, However. vetoed by Governor Zulick, on what he believed to be good and sufficient reasons, req sons which his attorney general, MT. Goodrich, overruled in an opinion ren- dered by him to the territorial auditor directing that officer to pay to one of the territorial judges such salary as had ac- crued to him under the appropriation bill of 1885, In consequence, as the matter now stands, the justices of the supreme court are required. by custom only, however, to perform the functions of county judges-a requirement which involves heavy expenses on the small salary paid them by the United States, without receiving the meager stipend heretofore allowed them by the territory, and which the highest legal counsel of the territory pronounced to be law tul and just. With such a condition of affairs existing. common justice and the dignity of each county demand that the labors performed by the judge in presid- ing over county tribunals should De compensated. No more laborious or duties are discharged by any class of officials than those which fall 10 the district judges, and compared with the work performed in return, the allow l ance of S5oo per annum by each county IS a mere bagatelle While economy is to be commended, ii is to be hoped that our supervisors will not attempt to practice it by doing the injustice of re- fusing to the judge of this judicial dis uict the same compensation for faithful services which counties far less wealthy | than Yavapai have already appropriated to discharge the obligations under which they are thus placed through our defeo- tive system of judiciary.